Facing enrollment drop, Burbank Catholic school gets

creative in staffing theater program

By
outsourcing teaching positions to professional actors, Providence High
has revitalized its drama program, and officials say it could become a
model for other financially strapped schools.

Not only is this a touch subject, it’s also a subject that takes on a very different shape depending on the circumstances of the individual school or school system.

A few thoughts:

1. There are not a ton of certified teachers in theater or dance. The last I looked, the ratio of certified theater teachers to students in the NYC public schools, for example, was about one to every 13,000 students. Nationwide, there were not enough certified theater or dance specialists teaching to have established a adequate sample size for NAEP Arts 2008 to report out on dance and theater.2. Regardless of the specific arts discipline, at a minimum, most of the certified arts teachers I have met are somewhat suspect of the role teaching artists and organizations play in schools. Their suspicion tends to focus on teaching artists replacing certified arts teachers (the outsourcing issue).3. Ideally, arts education is delivered best by a powerful combination of certified arts teachers, classroom teachers, and cultural organizations, including teaching artists. 4. Where there are not enough certified arts teachers available, it would be hard to fault a school that chooses to hire teaching artists as an alternative.5. An expansion of outsourcing as described by the LA Times piece will only serve to balkanize the arts education field.6. The certified arts teachers are getting it from all sides. Not only do they have to worry about a narrowing of the curriculum in an accountability zeitgeist run amuck, but they are being attacked as all certified teachers are for the quality of their training and performance while facing the growing issue of alternative certification. And yes, they are greatly concerned about teachers being asked to teach the arts who are licensed in other subject areas.

I have often defended the arts field to certified arts teachers as being extremely supportive of the vital role of the certified arts teacher. Moreover I have argued that the arts field has gone to bat over time for the hiring of certified arts teachers. As a matter of principle, most people I know believe that when there is a certified arts teacher, the more likely it is that the school will partner with the cultural field.

The article was not very well put together, I am afraid. It doesn’t really do much but give the impression that any actor can teach K-12. In that respect, it does a terrible disservice to the field of educational theater. It may very well be that the two actors that the schools have hired are highly trained, but there is no mention of that in the article.

Each actor may be half the price of the licensed theater teacher (and yes, the article only implies
that there were licensed theater teachers previously), but we have no
idea about frequency of instruction or anything else. What was lost
with the changeover, I guess is what I would have liked to have read.
And yes, I get it, I do, these are tough times. That being said, it is a
slippery slope from the exigent situation to the norm.

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Comments

Richard,
This issue about certified arts educators vs. non-certified outsources artists is indeed a thorny one. But I am curious to ask you a vaguely unrelated question: to teach theatre or almost any art form at the university level, one needs only the advanced degree (MFA, PhD) as a credential, and need not demonstrate at any level that they have the ability or training to teach. Appearances to the contrary, undergraduates are still in an emotional and developmental stage in their lives that requires a certain level of teaching skill to successfully approach. Does the arts education field take any position on the fact that college professors are seldom if ever trained to teach? And if not, then why worry about whether or not a certified teacher or an outsourced actor with a college degree is in the K-12 classroom? -twl

I think that most people who are involved with teaching education on the college level have bona findes as tK-12 eachers. But still, it’s a good question as many people are questioning these program regardless, as being too mired in theory and not strong enough in actual classroom work.

Richard Kessler

Dewey21C

is a blog dedicated to the belief that the arts are part of our genetic code. The belief that the arts are in the DNA of every person, and that our job as teachers, parents, mentors, advocates, and administrators is to provide quality, sustained arts … [Read More...]

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For those who have followed Dewey21C, hopefully you’ve noticed that I have been silent since the end of July. A month off from work followed that last post, and as we’re blowing through September, I have started a new chapter in my career as Dean of the Mannes College The New School for Music.

It’s not all that often that one gets a month off. It was a month that I viewed as time to leave behind the past seven years at The Center for Arts Education, while clearing my mind for the very new challenge of leading a music conservatory that is part of a fairly unorthodox university (The New School). It didn’t hurt that one of the founders of The New School, and father of its initial educational design was none other than John Dewey.

There is so much that I want to share about these early days in my tenure. I thought it would be a good call to start with something that had that sort of cold water in the face feel as soon as arrived at The New School.

In K-12, the pathway to college is and has been for many years the brass ring. Ten years ago it was simply getting students to college. For arts educators, we were being asked what we were doing to increase the high school graduation rates, with the presumption that graduates would move along to college at increasing rates, in addition to simply ensuring a higher high school graduation rate and all that it implies. Slowly it became about college and career readiness, which is the key frame for the Common Core Standards. What should a student know and be able to do in college and career. One way or the other, K-12 policy has been about getting more and more students to college, even if remediation rates are alarmingly high.

At the very same time, higher education is under fire. In almost every respect higher education is being challenged, whether it’s on the basis of cost, design, relevancy, etc.

Some say it’s better to attend DIY college. Others question the value of the degree altogether. It’s too expensive. It’s too abstract. The model is busted. There is no accountability. There is no data. It is hand cuffed by tenure and unions. Freshman enrollment is down. Students are taking longer to graduate.

Naturally, the above includes just a few issues in common with K-12.

You have to admit, at the very least, how fascinating it is to witness a sort of accountability movement in higher education, one which at time calls to question fundamental value, while at the very same time, most of K-12 policy continues to triangulate on moving students to college.

For me, at my new position, there is one particular question from K-12 that I find to be the perfect lens to peer through: what should a graduate know and be able to do. It is through that particular frame that I believe assessment and improvement is possible at my new job.